Stephen Birch: A Cape Town Property Developer

And then there were two ....

Another case adherent hails from distant South Africa to meddle, take a gamble, with the tragedy of a missing three year old child - Stephen (Saint?) Birch, not a mirrored version of Krugel as regards detail but a reflection none the less.  This one claims to have worked independently of the McCann family but curiously centres on Robert Murat, the dual nationality British/Portuguese gentleman who was the first 'official' suspect named by the Portuguese police seemingly because he was in the wrong place at the right time - or was it the right place at the wrong time?  Whatever, whilst the web was being spun M. Murat was the target of a conspiracy and later found to be completely innocent of any wrongdoing but left with the stigma of suspicion to live with.

But what was Stephen Birch's interest here, professional advancement or some other incentive?

Reading between the lines, amidst the defamation of character Murat, there appears yet another dig at the Portuguese Judiciary, yet another hint of ineptitude.

He has since been contacted by Scotland Yard who have discussed his findings, however the Portuguese authorities have closed the case and he said they are caught up in judicial issues. He has not ever been in contact with the family and wants to keep it that way as he is operating independently. He ended by saying that he needed to get closure on that particular property.

Interview transcript to follow below.

It's difficult to believe as the evolutionary process of advanced education expands by the decade, people still believe in fairy tales.  Childlike indoctrination or inability to understand the basic principles of life on earth in the form of logic, lesser still basic common sense?

Statement analysts;  armchair detectives;  retired police officers;  conspiracy theorists;  body detectors;  documentalists;  fantasists;  television producers;  media moguls;  property developers;  water diviners;  soothsayers;  witches and wizards;  vigilantes;  missing persons charities;  popes; charlatans; novelists;  journalists; buffalo hunters - all tried their luck but still the case remains unsolved!

Tells you something doesn't it?  In fairness, any right minded soul should be forgiven if not sucked in by any of the many case opportunists that have come and gone over the years - yet still the opportunists are being lauded and applauded by the hard of hearing - and seeing!

Stephen Birch talks to Capetalk Radio - original source Regrets and Ramblings [mmmmm!] 6th July 2012

South African claims he found remains of Madeleine McCann

Cape Town property developer, Stephen Birch, has been independently investigating the case of missing Madeleine McCann for the past 15 months, finishing on the 13th June. He then travelled to London to meet his attorney and hire a ground penetrating imaging device. He took this device with him to Lisbon. Once in Portugal he claims he illegally entered the property at least 5 times at night to use the radar in search for the remains. He says his scans clear show a cavity and an object in the cavity. He says that the cavity is 400-600mm under the driveway on the property. He claims that the location of the cavity is consistent with previous investigations findings. When asked why he has reportedly spent more than R500000 and 15months to produce the alleged evidence contained in a 12000 page report, he said it was an emotional journey that kept developing as he was involved. He has since been contacted by Scotland Yard who have discussed his findings, however the Portuguese authorities have closed the case and he said they are caught up in judicial issues. He has not ever been in contact with the family and wants to keep it that way as he is operating independently. He ended by saying that he needed to get closure on that particular property.

Guest: Stephen Birch
Position: Property Developer

Transcript

PRESENTER Thanks Sara. A very big story in the UK at the moment where the saga of Madeleine McCann remains an interest, a matter of great, great public interest. And they are reporting that a South African property developer, Stephen Birch, claims he has found the remains of Madeleine McCann. Stephen is on the line to us now from Cape Town. Good Afternoon.

BIRCH Hi, John. Thanks for having me on your show.

PRESENTER So what, what exactly are you claiming, Stephen?

BIRCH Well erm, we’ve er, I’ve, I’ve undertaken a fifteen month, you know, investigation into the Madeleine McCann case. And er, we finished off the investigation on the 13th of June this year, err, when I flew to London to er, make arrangements, with my attorney, erm, to represent me in London and also to hire a ground-penetrating radar machine. Er, I then flew from, ermm, London to Lisbon and met my team that were, that left from Cape Town. I erm, I employed a team about a month and a half before I left. And IT team and erm, a erm, a team of people to help me with regard to the camera work and surveillance. And er, I then met with them in Lisbon and we drove down to Praia da Luz where I pre-booked accommodation in the Ocean Club. Basically we rented an apartment known as Fuji (???) Farms 10 which overlooks the property which I’m sure some of your listeners might remember belonged to erm, a gentleman by the name of Robert Murat. Or actually it belongs to his mother, Jenny Murat.

PRESENTER Stephen, theres a little more detail than we need in what you are telling me at the moment. OK?

BIRCH Right.

PRESENTER So just, I mean could we cut to the chase?

BIRCH Yes we can. What we, what I did was. I entered the property four times illegally in the early hours of the morning between five and six o’clock in the morning. And using the ground-penetrating radar machine, ermmm, found, erm, potentially, er, a cavity beneath a driveway where I suspected that Madeleine could be buried. And, er, the scans clearly show that the ground below the driveway contains an object. At this present moment we are not sure…. Er, it needs to be confirmed and we are waiting for the Portuguese Police to react to our findings. But it shows a cavity and an object in the cavity and ermm, and it shows disturbance of, of the ground conditions beneath the driveway, approximately between 400 and 650 mm below the ground.

PRESENTER Driveways are things that are constructed. I mean cavities under driveways, is that unusual? What, what makes you believe that this cavity and the object which your ground-penetrating radar seems to have picked up is the remains of Madeleine McCann?

BIRCH Well, you know, its a fifteen month investigation. Its not only the cavity. There’s numerous factors which we, which if we are correct in our findings we’ll release that. Ermm, first of all the location of where we suspect the cavity to be is, err, in line our previous investigation. Secondly, ermm, the findings were sent to Scotland Yard. We’re still waiting for a result from them but were sent to South African experts who analysed the scans and came back and stated that there’s no doubt in their minds that there’s definitely something there and given the nature of the investigation that driveway needs to be lifted.

PRESENTER Stephen, a South African property developer doing a fifteen month investigation into the disappearance of a young British girl. Why? And where does a property developer get the kinds of skills and experience and expertise to successfully prosecute an investigation like this when seasoned criminal investigators haven’t managed to do it?

BIRCH Its an easy question to ask. Not an easy question to answer. I mean there, I have various reasons as to why I undertook the investigation and those reasons changed as I progressed through the investigation. You need to understand that it became an emotional process. One gets intertwined in the investigation. Its a twelve thousand page investigation that I undertook, ermm. I am a property developer. I have significant, erm, experience in soil conditions and ermm, I think my attention to detail and the way that I approached it on a very pragmatic basis and analysed every single detail and was able to obtain information that possibly the Portuguese Police had overlooked.

PRESENTER Yeah and I mean the British police looked as well and Madeleine McCann’s parents hired private investigators who also looked and you’ll understand why I and a lot of other people are going to be deeply sceptical that a South African property developer has succeeded where Portuguese and British professionals have not.

BIRCH No doubt. I am sure that there is a tremendous amount of scepticism out there. Unfortunately I need to remain focused at what I’m doing and I can’t be sidetracked. I’ll continue doing what I do, stay focused which I have been for the last thirteen months and get the Portuguese Police to lift that driveway and confirm my, my investigation that she is buried there.

PRESENTER Have you had any kind of response from either Scotland Yard or the Portuguese Police?

BIRCH Well the, ermm, Scotland Yard has written back to me on Monday stating that erm, my findings have been the erm, the centre of their discussions for the whole of Monday all the meetings. The Portuguese Police at the moment are remaining mum. You do know that the case has been closed for fifteen months after Madeleine went missing. So there seems to be a bit of a judicial issue there in being able to get them to react when the case has been closed. And its problematic the Portuguese police are putting, Portuguese press and the Spanish press are putting their, the Portuguese police under tremendous pressure to react and I’m sure that by the weekend the British tabloids and major….

PRESENTER Our reporter in the UK says this is going to be very, very big news in the UK over the weekend. The McCanns, have you had formal contact with them?

BIRCH No, you know I’ve made it very clear that I want no contact with the McCanns or anybody thats associated with Madeleine. I want it to be a completely independent investigation and it must be understood that by doing that erm, my focus has been on to find the infant’s remains and once we find the infant’s remains the investigation will be narrowed completely down and it should have been narrowed in the first place. It should have remained in Praia da Luz but unfortunately it went international.

PRESENTER Yes I mean if…. I don’t know who decided to go public with this but it is now public and so the McCanns will know about it and they’ll have reporters besieging them trying to get comment on this and if that driveway is dug up and there is a, I don’t know, a dead dog in there or the driveways dug up and there’s nothing then you have to answer to some fairly serious mental distress that you might have caused the McCanns.

BIRCH (Loud clearing of throat) Erm, I’m sure you’re right but at the end of the day my feeling on the whole thing is that we need to get closure on that particular property. Erm, I have certain evidence in my possession that says the property was not properly searched and errm, you know, and erm, in my opinion if I am wrong I’d like to eliminate that property completely out of the equation. But, I mean having spent, err, two weeks in Praia da Luz and having looked at all the various other properties, there’s only one place that Madeleine McCann can be buried and that is in that property.

PRESENTER That’s South African, Cape Town property developer, Stephen Birch who believes that he has found the final resting place of Madeleine McCann.

[Acknowledgement and thanks to pamalam at gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk]

it is one of the names i keep in mind to look every so much years what they are about.

after his grand debacle in a portuguese garden, he disagreed with his findings and started to tell the world on facebook, what means it is easy to get these written words out of your ways, that madeleine no longer was dead under in a portuguese garden, but that she was alive and living in nijmegen in the netherlands. he used picture from somewhere and enough to make it easy to find out who it was about, and i was not surprised when i found the names, mr. birch changed paces again, and he got a new adventure by seeking directly contact with the siblings of madeleine, through their schools and other means, somewhere during that episode he seems to gone up in dust, flames, dirt,or other hard to trace stuff.

portugal dis not like his first adventure in portugal, so they wanted to se him in court;
https://www.portugalresident.com/madeleine-more-twists-and-turns-in-the-seven-year-investigation/

no idea what the results have been, it seems this was handled in the portuguese wise tradition that justice works in silence.
on the property of jenny murat, she left to robert after she died are now newbuilds, nothing was ever found.

it seems they do not take him serious on his home base too;
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/offbeat/who-is-stephen-birch-fake-news-cape-town-testing-kits/

there is working in silence in south africa too, besides a link to linkdn that leads to nothing, going by the title they arrested him there also.

the last i could find he was back to his first idea, and he seems to be still around and shouting.

i know the saying goes barking dogs don't bite, but they can still be a nuisance of course.

Original Source: IOL NEWS: 14 JULY 2012
July 14 2012

The Saturday Star can today reveal for the first time the scan that Cape Town property developer Stephen Birch handed over to British and Portuguese authorities, which he claims proves that Madeleine McCann’s tiny body was buried on the property of former suspect Robert Murat.

A video showing Birch using a georadar machine, allegedly in Murat’s garden at Casa Liliana, is now circulating on the web, including on YouTube. In the interview with Portuguese TV station, Expresso TV, he said: “Maddie died on May 3, 2007 and she was put into the ground that same day.”

This comes as a heated row has erupted between Birch and two Cape Town private investigators amid allegations that all three are in the hunt for the sake of the R35 million reward.

Last week the Saturday Star reported claims by the property developer that he may have found the grave of missing Madeleine McCann less than 200m from the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal, using the radar scanning device. Now private investigators Martin van Wyk and his sister Bernice Manson have accused Birch of stealing their research and passing it off as his own.

But Birch didn’t respond in detail saying he had been advised by his attorneys not to comment on the case further.

This may be because Murat, in Portugal, is adamant that he will sue Birch. Murat’s lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, told the Algarve Resident on Wednesday: “We are suing Mr Stephen Birch for the unlawful entry into private property.”

In an interview with newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM) Birch admitted that while in Praia da Luz, he monitored the property “24 hours a day”, with the help of two “collaborators”, and when the house was vacated he would enter and search the backyard with the georadar equipment.

And on an Express TV news clip, Birch can clearly be seen operating the georadar on Murat’s property, hunched under hanging tree branches in the dead of night. He said he had entered the property four times.

“There is a big driveway on Casa Liliana. But I believe that Maddie is buried beneath a second driveway, a less important driveway, which was constructed over the ground. The driveway is small and one cannot even turn a car in it. I don’t believe it serves any purpose. It is covered by pebble stones.”

Birch further said he was aware that there was a good chance that he would be prosecuted for trespassing. He said he had hired two law firms – one in SA and one in the UK to protect his interests.

“I hope and will plead with the Portuguese police to investigate my claims and excavate the property. If they are successful, I will have no problem assisting them with their investigation,” Birch said.

Madeleine, 3, disappeared from the Praia da Luz resort five years ago while her parents dined with friends nearby. It is not known if she is still alive. When contacted for comment on Van Wyk and Manson’s claims, Birch said he was aware of them, but denied them.

“The claims are false but under the legal advice of my lawyers I will not comment on the matter at this point.”

He was speaking to the Portuguese police and the McCann family about having the remains in the grave disinterred, and had passed the scans on to the Portuguese police.

“Many people don’t believe my story, and you can’t blame them because I don’t have definite proof. I want the site to be dug up so we can confirm if it indeed holds the remains of Madeleine McCann,” Birch said.

Van Wyk, meanwhile, said Birch was solely motivated by the reward and was willing to resort to illegal means, such as trespassing, to get it.

He feared Birch may have destroyed years of research by going public with his findings.

“Our investigation is incomplete and is still ongoing. By revealing the location without any substantial proof for the police to act on, he has given the person behind the disappearance a chance to cover his tracks. Not to mention his illegal activities in obtaining his ‘evidence’. It was utterly reckless and may have let a murderer walk free.

“I’ve had authorities in the UK call and ask me what he’s trying to pull and tell me that he may have destroyed any hopes of solving the case.”

Van Wyk, a former military police investigator, who has specialised in missing children for the past 28 years, said he was drawn to the McCann case and visited Portugal in October 2007 and in September 2009.

He sold his shares in a bar he part-owned to fund his investigation. Van Wyk said he had made contact with Madeleine’s relatives and received their “blessing” to investigate the case.

They passed on descriptions of Maddie and any new information that came to them. Although the information they were able to provide was limited, it was very useful.

He also gave interviews with local newspapers on his findings.

Van Wyk said he had been in touch by e-mail with the police in Portugal and the UK. He had collected thousands of documents on the case – e-mails, newspaper articles, notes, and hundreds of photographs. The photographs included pictures of the possible grave site.

Just over a year ago, Birch approached the siblings and asked to join them on the case. Manson described him as an acquaintance and loner.

“We’d see him socially sometimes but we wouldn’t call him a close friend.

“Then about a year ago he found out about our research and approached us as a partner,” said Van Wyk. They had agreed to the partnership.

Van Wyk said: “Initially, things went well. Birch was good with ideas and he was very inquisitive about all the role players and our theories. But at some point, he began to obsess and called us several times in the middle of the night for information.”

Van Wyk claims Birch insisted on keeping Van Wyk’s passport, ID and case files to prevent him from travelling to Portugal without him.

Manson said Birch became furious when he was unable to access their photographs last year.

“The documents were stored at a relative’s place who was away for the weekend. When I told him we could only get the photos in a few days he lost it and said ‘you people aren’t interested in the case or the money’ and ‘how useless’ we were.

“We had decided to wait until September to go to Portugal and confirm our theories. But Birch was impatient, so using our research and theories went on his own, using his underground radar device. He only joined us to get the photos and location of the possible grave site. He left as soon as he got what he came for.”

Van Wyk added: “I have worked on this day and night for the past five years, reading through articles from the media and reports from law enforcement intelligence. And for Birch to claim it was his work was just too much.”

He admitted that he was interested in the reward but said he had deeper motives. “The reward is without a doubt a factor, but having worked on missing children cases for so long I wanted to establish a global network to help find missing children. The money and renown for solving the McCann case would go a long way to realising this dream.”

Van Wyk said they still intended going to Portugal in September. -Saturday Star

[Acknowledgement: pamalam at gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk]